Recently it was pretty big news that Nintendo issued takedowns to Facepunch for Garry's Mod content, and now Garry Newman of Facepunch (developer of Garry's Mod and Rust) has written up a blog post with some comments on it.
A lot of people thought it wasn't a legitimate takedown from Nintendo, with rather a lot of post on Steam and social media debating if it was real or not as the requests for this (and other takedowns before elsewhere) have not technically been direct from Nintendo. The emails often come from "Aaron Peters" via "mm-nintendo.com" and so naturally, people speculated and came up with conspiracy theories about copyright trolls and fake DMCA notices.
But Newman previously posted on X to be clear that it had been verified it was from Nintendo. And now in a blog post Newman has explained a little more noting how they've been getting "a ton of dms, voicemails, emails and actual physical hand written letters about this" because fans won't let it go.
The MM in the domain mentioned above stands for Mark Monitor, a company that "Provides strategic domain management solutions that help protect the revenue and reputation of the world’s leading brands". Looking over them, they're a fancy business-focused domain registrar designed for bigger businesses. And that mm-nintendo domain is noted as having "Nintendo of America Inc." very clearly as the owner.
As for this Aaron Peters who is noted on a lot of takedown noticed? Newman thinks they don't even exist:
This guy doesn't exist. Well, he might, but I don't think he does.
If you look at the history of takedowns, you will notice they started as real Nintendo employees. Then they all switched to Aaron. I would guess that this is because the internet is full of crazies.
So it makes sense that you invent a name to be the target of that stuff. Let the internet shout at an empty chair.
Newman noted, again, they've had it confirmed it's a legitimate Nintendo takedown. The ending of the blog was also quite interesting copied below:
I don't really understand the anger people have shown about this stuff. It doesn't seem logical to me. Maybe I grew up in a different time where IP, trademarks and copyright laws were obvious no brainers.
Maybe because of streaming and Steam this generation grew up without real piracy. Maybe they don't understand all that because they can post music and videos in their memes on tiktok and no-one gets pissed.
The attitude shouldn't be anger and outrage that it is being stopped; it should be surprise and delight that you got away with it for so long.
Companies letting you use their IP like this isn't the default. When a company lets you get away with using their IP in UGC in another game they're a cool company. When they don't, they're a normal company.
Sums it up quite well really.
You would think we would have learned by now that you can't just take well-known characters, entire designs from companies, and not expect to get slapped by them at some point. All that effort would be better spent on something original.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: ReverieMotifI got really intrigued when I read the words "present evidence" but after reading the whole blog post it's just garry giving his observations without providing anything substantial, which anybody could have done. I think most people are just unhappy with his vague wording of "been assured that it's real" on twitter, and this blog post doesn't do a great job of clearing stuff up aside him saying he's received confirmations of nintendo themselves (without showing any proof, although I know Garry probably isn't supposed to do that) and I think the reason everyone's so cynical and doubtful of everything is due to a lack of reassurance and/or evidenceYou don't generally show screenshots of private emails about this kind of thing, or present recordings of phone calls. What are you expecting from it exactly? The company that makes the game have said repeatedly now, they've confirmed it is Nintendo. Why do you need more? It's weird.
Quoting: ReverieMotifI got really intrigued when I read the words "present evidence" but after reading the whole blog post it's just garry giving his observations without providing anything substantial, which anybody could have done. I think most people are just unhappy with his vague wording of "been assured that it's real" on twitter, and this blog post doesn't do a great job of clearing stuff up aside him saying he's received confirmations of nintendo themselves (without showing any proof, although I know Garry probably isn't supposed to do that) and I think the reason everyone's so cynical and doubtful of everything is due to a lack of reassurance and/or evidence
Garry owes no one anything. It’s up to him to feel confident it was from Nintendo and he has said multiple times it was legit. Either you trust him and move on, or don’t and move on. But either way, your opinion, and mine as well, don’t matter; only Garry’s.
I may not be a fan of Nintendo anymore (got burned due to their actions, so I bailed), but that doesn't mean that I begrudge them this - though I do still find it odd how they turned a blind eye to the Steam Workshop stuff, and mods of games on their own consoles, for decades, and are only taking action now. (I have my own thoughts on the whys and wherefores, which I've shared with another GOL'er before via Steam Chat, but they're not relevant to this article, since nothing can be proven right now. 
)QuoteYou would think we would have learned by now that you can't just take well-known characters, entire designs from companies, and not expect to get slapped by them at some point. All that effort would be better spent on something original.You and I and others in our age-bracket would. Garry's point about the younger generation not being familiar with this sort of thing is a good one, though - YouTube (and presumably other places) are filled with amateur-made meme-filled Flash-style cartoons that are mostly based on properties that the animators don't own (I'm not talking fan-art, here, but rather channels that mass-produce this stuff; They're often based on indie games), and the younger generation right now is growing up with that sort of attitude towards copyrights. It's not quite another "Elsagate", but I don't imagine that most IP-owners would be happy with much of what's out there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrjM8Fi7J58
I don't know who Garry Newman is but he sounds like the typical sociopath executive - everything's a product, everyone's replaceable, it's just business, it's allowed by law therefore it's right. Just because a law allows something doesn't mean it's right, plus those kinds of people usually only use laws when it suits them.
Quoting: kerossinI don't know who Garry Newman is but he sounds like the typical sociopath executive - everything's a product, everyone's replaceable, it's just business, it's allowed by law therefore it's right. Just because a law allows something doesn't mean it's right, plus those kinds of people usually only use laws when it suits them.He's the creator of Garry's Mod, and thus would be legally culpable in this case. His personal website is here; He doesn't sound at all sociopathic.
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